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Where was 'A Bigger Splash' filmed?

Pantelleria, a far-flung Italian island between Sicily and North Africa, is known as the Black Pearl of the Mediterranean, and takes a starring role in new oddball psychodrama 'A Bigger Splash', a sun-baked tale of love and lust

Memories of teenage holidays on a far-flung Italian outpost between Sicily and Tunisia prompted director Luca Guadagnino to set his latest film, A Bigger Splash, on the volcanic island. A remake of the 1969 cult classic La Piscine, this is a tale of recuperating rock star Marianne (played by Tilda Swinton) and her boyfriend Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts), who are holed up on a romantic holiday until the peace is shattered by the arrival of record producer and old flame Harry (Ralph Fiennes) and his daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson).

Shot in the torpid heat of summer, the story unfolds around the sun-bleached landscape of the island, whose increasingly menacing majesty becomes a metaphor for the mounting desire, passion and regret experienced by the four main characters. Filming took place in the ancient village of Scauri and the surrounding coast: in one of the opening scenes, Marianne and Paul slather themselves in sulphuric mud scooped from the milky, turquoise waters of the Lago di Venere.

In a standout scene, Harry launches into a frenzied, shirtless dance to the Rolling Stones' 'Emotional Rescue' around the beautifully tiled pool at Tenuta Borgia estate, above and below left. By weaving the realities of the Mediterranean island's refugee crisis into the updated plot, there's topical seriousness too. 'The last thing I wanted was to show people just lounging around by the pool,' says Guadagnino. But it's the island's brooding allure that proved the linchpin for the whole project. 'I wouldn't have made the film if I could not have made it on Pantelleria.'